Connector for attaching belts to belt buckles



Sept. 17, 1957 o. STOLL 7 CONNECTOR FOR ATTACHING BELTS T0 BELT BUCKLES Filed Sept. 13, 1954 INVENTOR. O 770 5 TOL L AT RNEYS.

CONNECTOR FOR ATTACHING BELTS TO BELT BUCKLES Otto Stoll, New Britain, Conn., assignor to North & Judd Manufacturing Co., New Britain, Conn., a corporation of Connecticut Application September 13, 1954, Serial No. 455,407

1 Claim. (Cl. 24-265) The present invention relates to a connector for attaching belts to belt buckles.

The objects of the invention are to provide such a connector which can be fabricated economically from sheet metal and can be easily attached to the end of a belt without requiring stitching, which is attractive in appearance when viewed from either its front or back side and can be readily connected to a buckle with either side exposed, being therefore particularly suitable for use with reversible belts, which is adaptable to a wide range of belt thicknesses, and which can be quickly and conveniently attached and detached from a buckle to permit use of a variety of buckles with a single belt.

Other objects will be in part obvious, and in part pointed out more in detail hereinafter.

The invention accordingly consists in the features of construction, combination of elements and arrangement of parts which will be exemplified in the construction hereafter set forth and the scope of the application of which will be indicated in the appended claim.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a plan view of a connector constructed in accordance with the present invention, attached to a belt and connected to a buckle;

Figure 2 is an exploded perspective view of the connector, viewed from the side opposite that shown in Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a transverse sectional view of the connector showing the relation of the parts prior to complete attachment to a belt; and

Figure 4 is a transverse sectional view of the connector completely attached to a belt, as viewed along the line 44 in Fig. 1.

Referring to the drawings, a device constructed in accordance with the present invention is shown in Figure 1 attached to one end of a belt 2 and connected to a buckle 4. The buckle is shown for illustrative purposes as comprising a frame 3 having a pintle 5 on which is pivoted a tongue 7.

The device of the present invention comprises a pair of plates 6 and 26, between which the end of a belt is adapted to be sandwiched and clamped. The plate 6, herein referred to for convenience as the base plate, is formed of a single piece of sheet metal stamped and bent to form. It has a body portion 8 from one end of which extends a pair of fingers 18, 20 which are reversely curved so as to form hooks 22, 24. These hooks are arranged to receive the pintle of a buckle with the tongue of the buckle located between the hooks, as shown for example in Figure 1 of the drawings. Extending along the longitudinal side edges of the body portion 8 and terminating short of the free ends of the hooks 22, 24 are outstanding flanges 10, 12, the edges or lips of which are curved inwardly, as indicated at 14, 16 in Figure 3.

The other plate 26, herein referred to as the clamping plate, is also formed of sheet metal and is generally flat and has a rectangular shape. It is arranged to fit nited States Patent 0 Patented Sept. 17, 1957 "ice snugly between the flanges 10, 12 throughout the length thereof. The plate 26 has along its longitudinal edges parti-cylindrical hollow ribs or ridges extending above the outer face of the plate.

To attach the connector to a belt, the end portion of the belt is placed upon the body portion 8 of the base plate 6 between the flanges 10, 12, and the plate 26 is placed on the portion of the belt adjacent the open end of the plate 6 and then slipped into position between the flanges 10, 12. The lips 14, 16 of the flanges are then curled or folded towards each other and the body portion 8 into tightly clamping relation with the tops of the ribs 28, 30. The ribs or ridges 28, 30 reinforce the longitudinal edges of the plate 26 and serve as forms about which the lips of the flanges are correspondingly shaped. In this manner the end of the belt is clamped in securely sandwiched relation between the two plates. The fastener assembly thus provides a secure connection which can be simply and quickly made, and eliminates the need for stitching, rivets, or the like. Since flanges 10, 12 can be made of any desired width and folded over ribs 28, 30 with any desired amount of overlap, the fastener assembly is readily adapted for use with belts of various thicknesses.

With the arrangement shown, it is clear that the belt may be quickly and easily attached and detached from a buckle as desired, thus permitting a single belt to be used with a variety of buckles. Also, since the fastener assembly is fiat and compact, and attractive in appearance when viewed from either side, the fastener assembly may be optionally connected to a buckle with either side exposed, and hence is particularly suitable for use with reversible belts.

As many changes could be made in the above construction and many apparently widely different embodiments of this invention could be made without departing from the scope thereof, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

It is also to be understood that the language used in the following claim is intended to cover all of the generic and specific features of the invention herein described and all statements of the scope of the invention which, as a matter of langauge, might be said to fall therebetween.

I claim:

A connector for attaching a belt to a belt buckle comprising a base plate and a clamping plate between which the end of a belt is sandwiched and clamped, said clamping plate comprising a rectangular piece of sheet metal having along its marginal longitudinal edges particylindrical hollow ridges extending above the outer face of said plate, said base plate comprising a rectangular piece of sheet metal having along its longitudinal edges side flanges curved inwardly and downwardly over and conformed to convex surfaces of said ridges to clamp said plates together with the belt end therebetween, the said base plate having means on one end thereof for connecting the same to a buckle.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 209,701 McGill Nov. 5, 1878 1,262,574 Adam Apr. 9, 1918 1,373,590 Bodmer Apr. 5, 1921 2,461,030 Brickman Feb. 8, 1949 2,657,890 Atkins Nov. 3, 1953 FOREIGN PATENTS 344,634 Great Britain Mar. 12, 1931 

